View full sizeGus Chan, The Plain DealerRick Santorum acknowledges the crowd Friday as he is introduced at the Lake County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner in Eastlake.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A new poll Friday showed the Republican presidential race in Ohio too close to call, but Rick Santorum now stands to lose more than a quarter of the state's delegates -- regardless of how he performs here in Tuesday's primary.

The Ohio GOP has revealed that the former Pennsylvania senator filed incomplete delegate slates in six of Ohio's 16 congressional districts. Santorum already had forfeited delegates in three other districts by not submitting slates there at all.

The blunder, perhaps a sign of the choppy campaign organization Santorum had late last year when he was still a long shot, could be costly for the candidate who since has established himself as a consensus alternative to Mitt Romney. Santorum could be ineligible for up to 18 of Ohio's 66 delegates, 63 of whom are up for grabs next week.

Word of Santorum's bleaker prospects broke late Friday as he and Romney both were preparing for Cleveland-area rallies. Ohio is the most coveted prize of the 10 states holding nominating contests on what is known as Super Tuesday.

In short, Santorum is staring at a 29 percent deficit before a single vote here is counted.

"On Super Tuesday, if Sen. Santorum were to carry a district where he has not seated a full delegate slate, he will be awarded delegates where he has submitted delegate names," Ohio Republican Party spokesman Chris Maloney told The Plain Dealer in an interview late Friday. "And the additional delegates in that district will be unallocated."

Santorum did not address the issue while headlining the Lake County GOP's Lincoln Day Dinner in Eastlake and did not speak to reporters at the event. Representatives from his campaign did not respond to several requests for comment.

The unusual development -- the party has never encountered a situation like it before -- most likely will bring challenges, if not from Santorum then from rivals such as Romney or former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Maloney said the party has been reviewing its bylaws and, if need be, is prepared to convene what it calls "a committee on contests." State Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine would appoint three party members to the committee, and they would make a recommendation to the state party's central committee, which would rule. If Santorum or another candidate was unhappy with the ruling, he could appeal to the Republican National Committee.

Santorum's name will be on the ballot in all 16 congressional districts for the purpose of awarding delegates proportionally based on the statewide popular vote. In other words, all other candidates -- Romney, Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul -- will have their names on the ballot twice -- once for district-level delegates, once for state delegates.

Each of Ohio's 16 congressional districts awards three delegates.

(Read Stephen Koff's comprehensive look at how the flub could hurt Santorum in key districts)

The Romney campaign pounced on Santorum's predicament.

"The fact that he cannot execute the simple tasks that are required to win the Republican nomination proves that Rick Santorum is incapable of taking on President Obama's formidable political machine," Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said via email.

At the Lake County dinner, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, Santorum's top Buckeye State backer, told a reporter the delegate deficit should not matter.

"If he wins the congressional district, who or why would anyone deny him?" asked DeWine, who is Kevin DeWine's second cousin. "It would be unjust. I just can't see taking it away from the voters. People will be mad and outraged if they wouldn't get what they voted for."

Santorum told a sell-out crowd of 800 at the Dubrovik Gardens in Eastlake that America needs to return to strong home and family values to be a strong nation economically. He said a country where 40 percent of children are born out of wedlock will not bounce back to greatness, which is why he said he talks so much about restoring the American family and marriage.

"At the height of our greatness as a nation, families, churches and civic organizations were strong," Santorum said. "Today, people are too timid to preach this because you get criticized. But we have to talk about this. That's part of what allowed Americans to be free . . . we took care of ourselves."

He received his biggest ovation when he said Obama has to stop apologizing for America to foreign countries.

"He's always blaming us . . . our troops . . . our country, and it's time for him to stand up for it," Santorum said. "This has got to stop."

While Santorum campaigned in Lake County, Romney and his wife, Ann, rallied with about 350 supporters at Cleveland State University. The former Massachusetts governor had hoped for a bigger splash by appearing with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a rock star among Republicans. But Christie canceled his trip because of poor weather, Romney said.

Romney focused on jobs during his 25-minute speech, criticizing Obama but only mentioning his GOP opponents in passing with a subtle jab.

"The other guys, they spent their life in Washington," said Romney, in shirtsleeves and blue jeans. "If you want to get the economy fixed, if you want to create jobs, I think it helps to have had a job. And I have."

Romney also spoke about trade and national defense. Not known for his charisma on the stump, he mixed personal stories about meeting Ann with punchy sound bites and humor.

"I can see we have a border security problem here -- there's a shirt over there that says 'MICHIGAN,' " said Romney, offering a playful joke about Ohio's sports rivals to the north and a nod to his childhood roots in Michigan, where his father served as governor. He won the state's primary this week.

The Friday night events served as a warm-up for a crush of Ohio campaigning in the last weekend before Super Tuesday. Romney, Santorum and even Gingrich, who is far behind in the polls, are scheduled to chase each other around western and southwestern Ohio today.

Of the Republican contenders left standing, Paul is the only one not scheduled to appear in Ohio.

Santorum's Eastlake stop followed an afternoon event at Chillicothe High School in Ross County. In a region still trying to rebound from the recession, Santorum stuck to economic themes during his 40-minute speech at the high school. A crowd of about 300 people listened as he talked about how homegrown energy resources, a rebirth in manufacturing and a simplified tax code could spark a resurgence in the country.

"What kind of country do you want to hand off to the next generation?" Santorum asked the Chillicothe audience, which was a mix of adults and students. "We need innovative solutions to liberate the American people."

Pitching himself as a "conservative across the board," Santorum also took swipes at Romney. He noted that Romney and Obama both supported government-mandated health care -- a deal breaker for many conservatives.

"Why would Republicans take this issue off the table come November?" Santorum asked.

Hours earlier, a new poll from Quinnipiac University showed Santorum losing ground to Romney in Ohio. Santorum leads Romney 35 percent to 31 percent among likely GOP primary voters. That's a narrowing of 3 points for Santorum since Monday, when Quinnipiac released a poll ahead of the Arizona and Michigan primaries, both of which Romney won. Another poll, released earlier this week by the University of Cincinnati, showed Santorum up on Romney by 11 percentage points.

Friday's poll has Gingrich at 17 percent and Paul at 12 percent. A third of the voters said they might yet change their minds.

"At this point, the Buckeye State is too close to call and is clearly a two-man race between Sen. Rick Santorum and Gov. Mitt Romney," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University's Polling Institute.

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